Why Ford's Next Gen Cup Car Is Proving to Be a Mystery Machine

• The mysteries of NASCAR's new car seem to be particularly challenging for Ford teams.

• Ford has only four wins (Austin Cindric at Daytona, Chase Briscoe at Phoenix and Logano at Darlington and Gateway) and hasn’t won since the first week of June.

• Mark Rushbrook, global director for Ford Performance Motorsports, said this week that four wins “is not enough. It’s not acceptable.

Although the NASCAR Cup Series playoff grid is far from settled with four races left in the regular season, leading teams are already planning, plotting and pondering the 10-car run for the championship.

Pondering—there’s a lot of that.

Although the Next Gen car has been in 22 points races and two non-points events, what it might—or might not—do in certain situations and track conditions remains somewhat of a mystery. Race cars are refined every week, and it often takes years of toying with one particular model to understand all its quirks and quibbles.

This model is a relative toddler, and teams are still trying to please it.

“We don’t have great data on this car to know what’s real or what’s simulation BS,” said Joey Logano, 29 times a Cup winner and the 2018 champion. “It’s hard to read through what’s in real life and what is the stuff you see from simulation data. Those things are hard to clarify right now without a bunch of real-life, on-track testing.”

The mysteries of the new car seem to be particularly challenging for Ford teams. Ford has only four wins (Austin Cindric at Daytona, Chase Briscoe at Phoenix and Logano at Darlington and Gateway) and hasn’t won since the first week of June. In laps led, Ford (1,104) trails Chevrolet (2,739) and Toyota (1,676). In nine of the 22 races to date, Ford drivers have led less than 20 laps.

Mark Rushbrook, global director for Ford Performance Motorsports, said this week that four wins “is not enough. It’s not acceptable. … We need to have drivers further up the standings and hopefully at least four if not more drivers into the playoffs.

“We’ve seen a lot of success with speed at different tracks where we have understood it, but we still didn’t bring the win home. … We’ve got to get better in all areas because if you’re equal in every area, you’re exactly that – you’re only equal in every area.”